A blog about our life in Sant Cugat between 2007 and 2015, strange discoveries, amusing local news, politics, economics and cute stories about kids.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Renting a place in Sant Cugat

Places in Sant Cugat are still totally overpriced compared to what you can find by renting. Remember that listed rents are "suggested" and you are expected to negotiate the price down.

Due to overly friendly tenant laws, you will be expected to make a deposit of several (3-6) months rent (there's also some kind of bank escrow thing you can do, but its usually more pain than its worth). The reason behind this is that it can take up to 6 months to kick out a non-paying tenant. If you work for a big company, getting a letter saying how important you are sometimes helps lower the amount.

Something to remember: if you haven't made a deposit for the place, it's not yours! Most likely the agent is trying to shop it around to other people and get a better price. So if you find a better place in the meanwhile, don't worry about blowing off a previous place.

If you use an agent, it will cost you one months rent in fees, so you might be better off looking in Tot Sant Cugat (a little free red magazine that's always laying around somewhere).

If you think your rent is a rip-off, then just phone your landlord and say that you are moving unless they lower the rent. It's really that easy.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Hi, My family and I are planning on moving to Sant Cugat next June and so I've (somewhat obsessively)been checking rental sites to get an idea of what's available. You said that the prices given are negotiable, I realise you're not an agent but do you have any idea percentage wise, how much the price can go down? Thanks, J

My recommendation would be to find a similar place (sq meters, neighborhood, pool etc) that's cheaper and, use that as your starting figure. Homeowners tend to have varying levels of delusion about what their place is worth, so it's hard to come up with a fixed percentage.